NGPD - Goodies from VA for my Strat and pickup musical chair

So, I lowered all 4 pickups 1/2 a screw turn. On a #6-32 screw, that's 1/64". I thought it sounded great before. That 1/64" drop made it at least 37% better. Really stunned that I could love the sound of this guitar any more than I do currently....

On a marginally related topic - just used my birthday gift $$$ and ordered a 5% underwound Split Steel Pole Tele bridge pickup and a vintage Split Blade Tele neck pickup to put in the bridge and middle pickup spots of my red Fender Tele.

Since Rory does such a great vintage Tele sound, and the VZ does a fantastic modern-country/rock-ish Tele sound, I decided the red Fender Tele with the SD Jazz at the neck should be more of a blues/rock Tele.

It'll use the full HB in parallel (or series via the tone pot pull-switch) along with the bridge pickup (with its P90-ish flavor) in the spots where I had been splitting the Jazz to be hum-cancelling with the single-coil bridge pickup. If the 1/2 OOP sounds stink, maybe I'll drop to a 4-way switch with just N, N+B, M+B, and B....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
So, I lowered all 4 pickups 1/2 a screw turn. On a #6-32 screw, that's 1/64". I thought it sounded great before. That 1/64" drop made it at least 37% better. Really stunned that I could love the sound of this guitar any more than I do currently....
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How awesome! It's amazing to me how little it takes to make a big difference in tone. I went the opposite way recently: I pulled my floating Floyd back all the way and raised my bridge humbucker until I could fret the highest fret on each string and still clear the pickup. I don't know how far I raised it, but I think it was a few millimeters. It gave me the extra oomph I was looking for. Next of course I raised the neck to match pick attack and sustain by ear. Then I reset the I/O of the Axe-FX III, and voilà!

Those Fralin split blares just look so damn awesome, they really make me want to try a set one day.
 
Update:
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Stuff has shuffled through the bridge pickup spot lately. I think it is finally going to stay put a while....

So, after waiting for it to be built and shipped from Colorado, I now have a Planet Tone Clearvoyant at the bridge. It is wound to have a similar tone to the Tele "Full Range" HB, and has the offset pole piece screw arrangement to match. I jacked them all up about 2, 2.5, 3, 2, 2.5, 3 turns from fat E to skinny E, respectively, and run the pickup a little lower than normal, to make sure the poles are adequately far from the strings not to hit them when digging in. Doing this emphasizes the area of the string above the pole a fair bit more, giving a little of the slanted single coil vibe in the mix (similar to raising poles and backing off a neck HB to get more clarity and zing). I have it roughed in pretty well currently, but the screwdriver will almost certainly be used to make small "RCH" adjustments that take it from 86% to the high 90% range somewhere. Standard position on the S1 switch is parallel humbucking, and it switches to series when pressed to give extra oomph. The parallel setting gives a clear, quacky bridge+middle and a clucky bridge+neck that would be good enough on its own. The series setting combines well with the middle or neck, with a little more beef than parallel. Series bridge+middle gives a sort of '80s super-Strat character where the quack is a little subdued and it has a little more mids. Series bridge+neck gives a nice, slightly hot Tele kind of vibe. Bridge parallel alone gives a wonderfully clear tone with the little more beef that many wish for in a Strat, and makes it more user-friendly and rather inviting. Bridge series by itself has a nice grind to the mids that makes me want to use it more. This is a good sign, as I don't camp out on the bridge pickup really much at all, and this one makes me want to play that way more often....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
Update:
1000011923.jpg

Stuff has shuffled through the bridge pickup spot lately. I think it is finally going to stay put a while....

So, after waiting for it to be built and shipped from Colorado, I now have a Planet Tone Clearvoyant at the bridge. It is wound to have a similar tone to the Tele "Full Range" HB, and has the offset pole piece screw arrangement to match. I jacked them all up about 2, 2.5, 3, 2, 2.5, 3 turns from fat E to skinny E, respectively, and run the pickup a little lower than normal, to make sure the poles are adequately far from the strings not to hit them when digging in. Doing this emphasizes the area of the string above the pole a fair bit more, giving a little of the slanted single coil vibe in the mix (similar to raising poles and backing off a neck HB to get more clarity and zing). I have it roughed in pretty well currently, but the screwdriver will almost certainly be used to make small "RCH" adjustments that take it from 86% to the high 90% range somewhere. Standard position on the S1 switch is parallel humbucking, and it switches to series when pressed to give extra oomph. The parallel setting gives a clear, quacky bridge+middle and a clucky bridge+neck that would be good enough on its own. The series setting combines well with the middle or neck, with a little more beef than parallel. Series bridge+middle gives a sort of '80s super-Strat character where the quack is a little subdued and it has a little more mids. Series bridge+neck gives a nice, slightly hot Tele kind of vibe. Bridge parallel alone gives a wonderfully clear tone with the little more beef that many wish for in a Strat, and makes it more user-friendly and rather inviting. Bridge series by itself has a nice grind to the mids that makes me want to use it more. This is a good sign, as I don't camp out on the bridge pickup really much at all, and this one makes me want to play that way more often....
Click to expand...

How cool! Glad that worked out well for you. I had to peruse the Planet Tone site to check out their offerings. The Poundcake seems like a cool one too. Enjoy!
 
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